


Sword's Champion

by chameleontattoos



Series: Wolf & Wildcat [5]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, but i had fun and that's what matters, i'm not entirely sure what this is to be honest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21555727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chameleontattoos/pseuds/chameleontattoos
Summary: It is said that if you separate the Sword from the Champion, they will each crumble away until nothing is left but dust on the breeze. But that is easier said than done. The fact of the matter is that any man who tries to distance Hawke from Fenris—be that physically or otherwise—will soon find himself missing friends, limbs, or both.
Relationships: Fenris/Female Hawke
Series: Wolf & Wildcat [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1553473
Comments: 4
Kudos: 40





	Sword's Champion

It is said that if you separate the Sword from the Champion, they will each crumble away until nothing is left but dust on the breeze. But that is easier said than done. The fact of the matter is that any man who tries to distance Hawke from Fenris—be that physically or otherwise—will soon find himself missing friends, limbs, or both.

People forget that Hawke is a perfectly capable swordswoman in her own right. She has few chances to demonstrate her skill, though this is not through any fault of hers.

No; if there is fault to assign, let it be borne on the graves of the fools who wish to prove their greatness to their fellows by besting the storied Champion of Kirkwall. Many try; all fail. For Fenris—loyal, ferocious Fenris—will soak his own hands in their hearts’ blood, claws bared to rend mortal wounds in their very _souls_ , before he lets them touch her.

This is what makes it so easy to ignore that her blades have spilled the blood of men, demons, dragons. These are not mere tales. The eldest Hawke daughter has always been a force to be reckoned with. But she is a stranger to most. Merely a name. They do not know the truth, and like as not they never will. With such a champion as Fenris, it is easy for them to believe that she was simply an orchestrator. Someone who gave the orders, but never swung the sword.

\----

Fenris, the wolf, the stoic warrior, never smiles. Never, but for one exception: his wildcat rogue. His Hawke. When he smiles for Hawke, it’s real; it reaches his eyes, lightening them to the green of new leaves, with just the barest hint of a crinkle at the outside corners.

But the second someone treads too close to their island of solitude—paid for with an easy handover of gold and a promise not to cause trouble, so long as the barkeep ensures that their space is respected—it is as though there was never a smile there to begin with. One would question whether they ever saw affectionate warmth in those eyes, when the suspicion that now lives there is so complete. Cold as the depths of winter, they are, with a shadow that darkens their shade to bottle-glass. This is a man whom it is not wise to misjudge.

Hawke, meanwhile, is all smiles. She who pulled herself up from the dregs, or so they say, all the way up to Hightown and nobility, and smiling all the while. She smiles at children, sometimes pressing small sweets into small hands. She ruffles their tangled hair as they clamour for her attention, and reminds them to eat their greens if they truly wish to grow up to be as strong as she is. She smiles at their parents, telling them how precious their children are, wishing them continued safety for their family. Only spend what you have no need of, she’ll say, with something not quite a threat in her tone. Not _quite_ , but close.

She smiles at the empty posturing of the local drunk, relaxation in every line of her body. Smiles, too, at the more loaded threats from the more sober men. Her charming grin serves to distract them from the way she sets her feet firm against the ground, lazily folded arms a cover for the flex of her fingers. Hawke is all smiles, yes. But so is a dragon, before she strikes.

\----

They carry little. Only items that have practical use, or else are small and light enough that they can be tucked away in a belt pouch or a saddlebag without becoming a hindrance. Such is the life of the Champion and the Wraith.

Blades. Two blankets. One bowl, two flasks.

A token stamped with the crest of the Dwarven Merchants’ Guild.

A delicate pendant in the shape of the Chantry symbol.

A stone halla, two finger-widths long and wrapped in a kerchief.

A set of tools for repairing minor tears in leather armour.

A single Rivaini coin that shares a pouch with a set of lock-picks.

A sliver of wood, chipped from an apprentice mage’s first staff by a fledgling warrior’s first sword on a Ferelden spring day long since passed.

A wrinkled promissory note made out to _H: 6 gold, Wicked Grace_ , written in a healer’s neat hand—paid, so says a different hand using different ink, _in services rendered_.

\----

It is said, by far wiser men than I, that if you should ever think to tempt the Champion away from the Sword—bring an army. Sound advice, to be sure, but even so: Do not expect to win. It matters not how many swords you send against them, nor spells, nor flights of arrows. For the Champion has been tested in ice, in wet, in rot, in dark; the Sword, in flames, in pain, in iron. You would have better odds of squeezing honey from granite than striking a blow against either one before the other’s blade hews your arm from your shoulder.

If you would take the advice of a humble traveller: Leave them be. They have seen many things, and done much. They are tired, and they are healing.

Leave them be.

**Author's Note:**

> Places this gently down... Be free, my absurdly-long-working-time child.
> 
> The filename was "fenhawke idk man i just have this really clear mental image of fenris standing half in front of hawke and doing the Fenris Dangerous Glare" and honestly I can't remember where I originally intended for that mental image to lead for the life of me but I'm fairly sure what you have seen today is not the anticipated final destination, so. Score one for pantsing?
> 
> Come chat to me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/solarfruit)!!


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